I have set my will to know the truth, based on a
choice to believe that there is real goodness in
the universe and that knowing the truth will
always benefit or pay off. I do a LOT of
contemplation where I allow my feelings to come
to the surface and experience them in the light
of what my rational mind and intellect “knows
and believes”. I then observe the conflicts or
discrepancies and challenge one side and then
the other to make adjustments until there is
harmony.

Part of the dynamic here is that I can
let this spiritual "warfare" rage inside my head until
resolution because I know that I have ultimate
value, am seeking the truth, and am OK. It’s not that the warfare gets
resolved each and every day. Sometimes (often in
the past) I have had to table the issue(s) and
trust that I will be led to greater knowledge,
insight and understanding coming from experience
or outside learning. This “process” works for
me, if you will grant that I am rational,
logical, reasonable, objective and realistic to
a fair degree and that I have grown spiritually.
Ultimately, this approach has forced me to
develop a paradigm of God, of reality different
from the traditional one.

Having said that, I do not know what “meditation” is. By the time I
had any exposure or interest in meditation, I
had already developed the above approach. Maybe
people are actually doing different things and
calling it meditation. Maybe some are even doing
what I call contemplation under the term
meditation. I don’t know. I do know that I have
generally NOT been impressed with the results of the various types of
“meditation” fostered by others.

Here is an excerpt from a 2015-9-25 Oregonian article:

“The dark side of mindfulness”

“The lesson of Mindfulness is clear: Through
meditation and the Way of the Buddha, you too
can become truly present and at one with the
universe. You too can become happier and more fulfilled.

But there’s a possible dark side. Many people
have found peace and satisfaction from
meditation. But some practitioners end up
tumbling off the well-lighted path to
enlightenment and instead experience “twitching,
trembling, panic, disorientation,
hallucinations, terror, depression, mania and
psychotic breakdown,”

The Times of London put it this way:
“Mindfulness: It can mess with your head.”

People use meditation to “quiet the mind,” ease
physical pain and anxiety, and embrace their
true emotions. “But happiness and de-stressing
were not what meditation techniques, with their
Buddhist and Hindu roots, were originally
developed for,” Farias and Wikholm wrote earlier
this year in New Scientist magazine. “The
purpose of meditation was much more radical: to
challenge and rupture the idea of who you are,
shaking one’s sense of self to the core so you
realize there is ‘nothing there’ (Buddhism...”

That is indeed radical, especially for Americans
with our ingrained regard for self and the individual. Farias and Wikholm cite a study that concluded
that 63 percent of people who meditate have had negative side effects of one sort or another,
some of them quite serious.

Farias, an Oxford-educated psychologist who
teaches at Coventry University in England, said
this shouldn’t surprise anyone. “How can a
technique that allows you to look within and
change your perception or reality of yourself be
without potential adverse effects?” he told the
Times of London.

None of which necessarily means you shouldn’t
practice mindfulness. Various small studies have
indicated that it’s helpful in alleviating depression.

“Properly done, it’s the opposite of
mindlessness,” says Anthony Seldon, a British
historian and educator, “It helps people to be
self-aware, to collect themselves, to be
thoughtful before they decide what to do.”

A few other thoughts:

Obviously, what Seldon has in mind is different from Buddhism, and probably Farias’ and
Wikholms’s understanding of the Buddhist intention is incomplete. Probably a wise
Buddhist would say that stripped of the ego problems, there is “nothing there” except a
package of eternal value. But so much confusion,
and so little clarity with our language and thinking.

Also clearly, without being prepared by belief
in real goodness—the Good News—, being mindful of
the human condition and the evil in the world
can be disorienting and downright destructive.
Most dare not look reality fully in the face, most cannot be fully
“mindful” without fainting and falling off the horse.

In other words, if you are not prepared to believe in full and complete
goodness, a God worthy of the term, then be careful about being mindful of too
much reality.